Cliff Bleszinski on what's next after Epic: "I would want to get back to the triple-A space eventually"

Veteran designer Cliff Bleszinski split ways with longtime employer Epic Games back in October, seeking a "fresh start" after 20 years. Though Bleszinski wants to keep making games , the finer details of his next move haven't appeared yet. In an interview with VentureBeat , Bleszinski didn't rule out a return to triple-A production, explaining any such effort would have a slower rate of ramp-up.

"I would want to get back to the triple-A space eventually, but the last thing I would want to do—and no offense meant to Curt Schilling [38 Studios] and John Romero [Ion Storm]—is to do what those guys did," he said. "'Let's throw 300 bodies at it! Sure, we'll just make it work!'"

Instead, Bleszinski would take a more cautionary approach to future projects, contracting small, indie-studio-style teams to prototype "defined goals and a number of assumptions that I thought would be cool as far as what kind of game I'd want to make." If everything checks out, the project would kick into triple-A mode. Think of it as a fast-forwarded version of a developer's evolution from humble beginnings to a successful, multi-franchise company.

"Even if I had a publisher tomorrow who said, 'Hey Cliff, here's $50 million dollars: go make your dream game,' I'd still only ramp up with a handful of people," Blezsinski stated.